Hi all. My wife and I were on the HAL Zuiderdam in the Eastern Caribbean from April 2 - 9, 2005. This was our first cruise with HAL.

There are plenty of places online to read the same info over and over about HAL and this particular ship. I'll not repeat everything you can see there. Instead, here are some details that we noticed / experienced, plus some dispelling of things others have said.

BACKGROUND: I'm at a pr firm (I'm 37), my wife (she's 34) is an attorney. She had a deal closing that was 8 months in the making. When we saw the window of opportunity to finally escape, we took it. That meant we only booked our trip 1 month prior to sailing (unusual because we book trips far in advance and then do lots of pre-planning). Read more